On Friday 10th January Michael Gove visited Gloucestershire for the second time in recent months. Stroud Against the Cuts received a tip-off he was due to visit Marling School in the afternoon, and arranged to meet at 3.15, half an hour before Gove was due to arrive.

We hope to provide a full report soon, in the meantime here are some photos and links to mainstream media coverage of the protests, which were joined by around 200 people in all, and saw dozens of students chanting "Gove Out!" outside the classroom Mr Gove and local MP Neil Carmichael held a small press conference (which had been intended to be secret)

Stroud Against the Cuts' twitter account has more: https://twitter.com/StroudAntiCuts.

If you are a student of member of staff and would like to send photos, video, or a statement about why you joined the protests, please email:
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Below is the original SATC call for a protest:

Dear Stroud Against the Cuts supporters,
Tomorrow, Friday 10th January, Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, is visiting Gloucestershire.

He will be attending Marling school in the afternoon, and we are organising an impromptu protest meeting

outside the former Downfield Hotel (now Five Valleys Vetinary Service), next to Downfield Rd.

Please join us if you are able - with placards etc.

Why protest Michael Gove's visit?

As has been happening in our health services, education is being increasingly privatised and marketised, removing local democratic control through the promotion of Academies and 'Free Schools'. (locally, Governors, Staff and parents at King's Stanley Primary school are campaigning again the school becoming an academy, see: http://www.savekingsstanley.co.uk/index.html)

A recent survey showed:

79% of teachers feel that the Government’s impact on the education system over the last three-and-a-half-years has been negative.

82% of teachers and 87% of school leaders do not believe the Coalition Government’s academies and free schools programme is taking education in the right direction.

Morale in the teaching profession continues to fall and three quarters (74%) of teachers say their morale has declined since the last General Election.

63% of teachers say that more than a fifth of their workload does not directly benefit children’s learning.

52% of teachers are less likely to stay in the profession as a result of changes to teachers’ pay and pensions, and 57% are less likely to stay as a result of changes to teachers’ conditions.

70% of head teachers do not feel trusted by the Government to get on with the job.

69% of teachers and 85% of head teachers feel they cannot work until 68.

The vast majority of teachers (91%) do not believe publicly funded schools should be run for profit, and 93% of teachers believe academies and free schools should employ teachers with Qualified Teacher Status. (see: http://www.teachers.org.uk/campaigns/protect-teachers)

A leaflet from the National Union of Teachers is attached.

In October last year, Teachers took strike against against attacks not only on our education system but their terms, conditions and pensions, see information here: http://stroudagainstcuts.co.uk/fightback/educationcuts/37-education/150-teachers-strike.html. Why has SATC been supporting this strike action?

"Teachers’ pensions are not “gold-plated”, they are fair and affordable. £46billion more has been paid in than has ever been paid out!

· If private sector pensions aren’t as good then they need to be made better – please don’t pit private against public

· Teachers have had a significant pay cut in real terms over the past few years – will be 15% by April 2014

· Teachers are being asked to pay more, work longer and get less for their pension – we need you to report this

· Teachers cannot physically work until 68

· Working conditions for teachers have deteriorated under this government

· The working conditions of teachers are the learning conditions of children

· The new pay structure being introduced by Michael Gove pits teachers against each other. This is not the way teachers want to work

· Striking is a last resort. We don’t want children to miss a day of school or to inconvenience parents, but we are fighting for a better education system and Michael Gove has refused to negotiate leaving us no other choice" (http://teacherroar.weebly.com/)

Higher education staff have been taking industrial action over real terms pay cuts over the past few months. Members of the University and College Union, Unison, Unite and the Educational Institute of Scotland are taking strike action tomorrow (6th February) in universities around the country. Stroud Against the Cuts sees such action by unions as a necessary part of campaigning against austerity - defending people's jobs and working conditions, and our services.

Unison say: "UNISON members will take a third day of strike action tomorrow 6 February - alongside colleagues from UCU, Unite and EIS -in the increasingly bitter dispute with the higher education employers over their offer of a 1% pay rise. Since the last strike on 3 December, UK university employers have continued their intransigence, informing the unions that they would not hold any further negotiations over pay and telling universities to impose the 1% offer...

Failure to match increases in the cost of living mean that higher education workers are ‘missing’ from between £667 and £3,547 from their salaries and face a cost of living crisis, as their incomes are squeezed.

More than 4,000 employees are paid less than the living wage of £7.65 an hour (£8.80 in London).

UK vice Chancellors have seen their total pay bill increase from £30,116,314 in 2007/8 to £34,115,525 in 2011/12 - an increase of 13% when other workers have seen a real-terms pay cut of 13%." Read more from Unison here.

UCU (the University and College Union) have written a briefing on the Higher Education dispute for students, which explains: "Why are academic and other university professional staff taking industrial action?

The people who teach you, the people who staff your libraries, the people who conduct world-class research in our universities, are having their pay cut. Their pay has fallen by 13% in real terms since 2009 and now staff are angry because their employers are refusing to offer any more than 1% for this year. 1% is way below inflation and as such, is just another pay cut.

This is in spite of the fact that universities are in very good financial shape. Universities are sitting on a collective surplus of more than £1billion plus far bigger reserves. They are congratulating themselves for accumulating these surpluses by awarding their Vice Chancellors an average 6% pay rise. The average Vice Chancellor or Principal now earns £250,000."

There will be picket lines at universities (including at the Francis Close Hall, Cheltenham campus of the University of Gloucestershire), please support these if you happen to be passing - a brief report with from on the picket lines there as part of the same dispute in October last year is below, together with videos about the reasons for the dispute.

You can also see photos and tweets from the day of action here and a selection below, show support on facebook: or twitter, using the hashtag #fairpayinHE. You can also help support the strike by explaining why it is happening to colleagues, family and friends - why not forward them the above information from UCU and Unison?

As a group we have agreed to support the strike action by teachers tomorrow 17th October. Several members have given flyers to parents, pupils and staff explaining the reasons for the strike and for our support of it at:

Severn View, Callowell and Stroud Valley primary schools

Stroud High, Marling and Archway secondary schools

Our friends in Cheltenham and Gloucester Against Cuts have been flyering in their patches too.

We would welcome help visiting pickets to communicate support from SATC tomorrow, and help distributing leaflets. Please see the attached leaflet (or pass on to friends, family, neighbours and colleagues). You might also like to share this film and, if you can, this tweet.

If you are a parent, please consider visiting pickets and passing on our leaflet to other parents. =

Students have shown the way;with waves of protests over &pound;9,000 tuition fees, 80% university teaching budget cuts and the scrapping of EMA (Education Maintenance Allowance), disadvantaging those from poorer backgrounds in post 16 education. In November 50,000 marched in London and nationally 130,000 school, college and university students took part in protests and occupations and tens of thousands more protested as parliament voted on fees. Rednock school students demonstrated and Stroud students occupied MP Neil Carmichael&rsquo;s offices twice in a week.